593 - BRT – The Voice of Freedom for 50 years - A glance back to its beginnings1/2/2014

By Heidi Trautmann

On 25 December Bayrak Radio Television
Corporation celebrated the 50th anniversary of its establishment with a
reception to which many state and government officials as well as retired and
current personnel of the corporation attended the reception which was held at
the Hidden Garden in Lefkoşa. The current BRT Director Mete Tümerkan reminded
that the Bayrak Radio was established with the aim of announcing the Cyprus
Turkish People’s existence on the island and make their rightful voice be
heard. Politicians stepped forward to deliver their congratulations, the Leader
of the Social Democratic Party Cemal Özyiğit; the Leader of the main opposition
National Unity Party Hüseyin Özgürgün; the Turkish Ambassador to Lefkoşa Halil
İbrahim Akça; the Second President Mehmet Ali Talat, the Prime Minister Özkan
Yorgancıoğlu; the Speaker of the Parliament Sibel Siber, and finally President
Derviş Eroğlu who took to the stage last also praised BRT for being the voice
of the Cyprus Turkish People and said ‘the BRT is now being watched around the
world.

Seven years ago on the occasion of the 43rd
anniversary I wrote an article on the very beginnings of BRT and I spoke to
some of the first staff members and also to Can Gazi in a separate interview.
For me it was history I encountered. The article was published in Cyprus Today
and also in my book ‘Art and Creativity in North Cyprus’ because as BRT Radio
and Television Corporation they have always been heavily supporting art and
culture, be it in the Turkish and/or the International channels, BRT I and BRT
II.

I would like to bring some extracts of my
encounters with people who have taken part and/or witnessed the humble
beginnings, some of them have already left Station Earth, but they will not be
forgotten.

Extract
from: “Voices
from Yesterday”

It was 21 December, 1963.Greek and Turkish Cypriots were face-to-face
in open war less than two months after President Makarios had changed the
Cyprus constitution, established under the watchful eyes of three guarantor
countries, on November 3.

Erdoğan
Naim used his hands as he described those
momentous events and his eyes still looked troubled.“I worked for CBS (Cypriot Broadcasting
Services) as a shift engineer,” he said. “I was called to meet the Turkish
Cypriot resistance group, TMT, in Nicosia. There were other technicians and
engineers present and we were asked to set up our own radio station. 'We need a
voice, we need to communicate with all our villages across the country', they
told us. We Turkish Cypriots lived in enclaves – enclosed villages – there were
Greek checkpoints and it was a nightmare to cross them.”

“We got the basic material
together from ex-British army goods acquired by auction or other organising
means. And as technicians, we knew where other necessary parts were. We had to
get a transmitter, which we knew was on the Greek side and we secretly
‘organised’ the arrival of the equipment, which weighed around 1000 kilos. We
worked night and day, about 30 of us, on this project.”

“But what could we do about a
power supply to get the transmitter started?In one night, we collected 120 car batteries and connected them all up
to do the job. On December 23, from Dr. Küçük's (the Turkish Cypriot leader at
that period, Dr.
Fazil Küçük) garage, and for the first time, our voice went on air calling:
“Bayrak – Bayrak – Bayrak” (bayrak is Turkish for flag).”

What frequency were they using, I
asked. As an amateur radio operator myself, I was interested in the technical
details and I could understand Erdoğan Naim’s excitement – and the considerable
challenge he and his friends faced in carrying out their covert scheme.

“We transmitted on medium wave at
1400 kHz as there were hardly any short wave radios in Turkish Cypriot homes,”
he replied, adding: “We used a 40 metre-long antenna and worked hard to improve
the whole set-up, including the transmission range.Later we moved into a proper building on top
of the post office in Nicosia.”

While one team, including Erdoğan
Naim, improved the technical infrastructure of the fledgling Bayrak Radio –
including setting up a workshop for building and repairing radios for villagers
and then delivering them – another team started work on programme-making. Items
were to consist of information and entertainment aimed at bolstering national
pride and reducing the isolation of embattled Turkish Cypriot communities.

İlter
Sami, the well known Turkish Cypriot tennis
player born in 1946, who counted many Greek Cypriots among his tennis partners
and opponents, was asked to join Bayrak Radio in 1966 as an English-language
broadcaster. “I was interested, not least because it left me with more time to
play tennis, so I quit the army and joined BRT,” he said. Where had he learned
to speak such good English, albeit with a slight American accent? “My tuition
was practically all on tennis courts,” he said. “In my schooldays, there was no
tennis at all in our circles. I started off with table tennis and then one day
by mere chance it happened that I had to play tennis and so my career began,
along with a proper training programme. As I was the only tennis player around,
I was asked by British, American and other Embassies to teach the game to their
staff or to their children. And so I became a tennis coach. Since all my days
were spent in their company, I soon spoke the sophisticated English of my
clientele – learning by doing, so to speak.”

“I started by reading the news in
English, transmitted in the morning, around lunchtime and in the evening.
Later, I had two musical programmes, but the time in between I spent on the
tennis court.”

Between 1963 and 1966, there was
no crossing the border of the Turkish Cypriot enclaves, no more tennis in the
Greek community for İlter, but the friends he still had on the “other side”
could at least hear his voice.“You
cannot imagine what that isolation meant to me; I, who had represented Cyprus
abroad, I, who had won trophies for Cyprus, I who had been awarded a trophy by
Glafkos Clerides, Lady Harding and others – look here at all the trophies along
the wall – I was all of a sudden cut off.But still, I was happy to continue coaching in our own Sports Club and
with all my other sports activities.” İlter Sami pointed out with pride the big
trophy he was later awarded by the then President Rauf Denktaş when he was
named “Sportsman of the Year” in 1988.

Times at the early Bayrak Radio
were very difficult; sometimes the radio staff slept in their cars or in the
studio. “One day while I was reading the news, a bomb hit our roof. Everybody
rushed out of the building but I read on because the enemy was not to know the
bomb had hit us. Fortunately it did not explode. You see, we lived with danger,
it was the air we inhaled every single day for all those years.” İlter Sami
stayed with Bayrak Radio for 21 years until 1987.

Feyziye Hulusi also joined
Bayrak Radio in 1966. She had had ten years' experience in the CBS (Cyprus
Broadcasting Services), from 1953 to 1963, when all Turkish Cypriots were
removed from such positions. Until 1966 she worked for Dr. Küçük in the
Information Office, when she was offered the job of programming for Bayrak
Radio.During the following eleven years
she set up ten programmes to entertain and inform her Turkish Cypriot audience
– with titles such as Musical Puzzle
where she gave clues and the listeners had to guess, Seven Pages from the Calendar, where she narrated what had happened
on those days in the past; programmes to introduce music and instruments and
historical programmes, teaching history.

“I had to do a lot of research but I was used to working hard,” she
said. “Every morning I got up at five o’clock to start work at six and I went
home late at night. There was also a Woman’s
Hour programme, which was very important for me.I was president of the local women's group
for nineteen years, until I had to hand over due to my age.”

Mrs Hulusi, who did so much for her country, especially during those
hard years, leaned back on the sofa,now
aged 85, and let her eyes wander through the window and to the sea beyond.Her voice was still beautiful and strong. “I
had not seen the sea for eleven years; from ’63 to ’74, we were not allowed to
go over the mountains to Kyrenia.I knew
how our people felt, being enclosed and isolated from the normal activities of
life.That is why Bayrak Radio was so
important: our voices created a bond between the villages, between all the
individuals, and to the outside world.We were the guarantor that those people did not feel alone any more. It
glued us together.”

Gönen, her daughter, who had left the island with her husband Kenan
Atakol in January 1964, so they could both study in the United States – an
adventure story in its own right – sat with us and filled in the disturbing
details.The harassment of Greek checks
and random searches made people think twice about leaving the enclaves, but
their trade had to go on, and scarce food had to be brought to the markets.
Melon crops loaded on cars had to be unloaded for checks or they were just
destroyed; things were confiscated; and they all had to keep their mouths shut.
Mrs Hulusi continued: “When they came home, they could listen to Bayrak Radio
and their pride – their national pride – was built up again. I talked about
Turkish traditions and played national music to make them strong again. I read
poetry and told stories. It was a tremendous effort for all of us, the team on Bayrak
Radio. They called me ‘abla’, which means ‘older sister’ and they still do. We
were very intimate, a big family, we had one common goal and were sincere and
genuine about it.”

Then came 1974 and the chaos of the coup. Mrs Hulusi’s son was shot.
Immersed in her work, she learned of it only eight days later. The government
was taken over by Samson and he announced on state radio that Makarios was
dead.Bayrak Radio learned through other
channels that this was not the case, and was the first station to announce the
truth worldwide. The situation had become very dangerous for Turkish
Cypriots.It was now a matter of life or
death. On 20 July, 1974, the Turkish intervention began: landing troops in
Karaoğlanoğlu and parachuting in troops near Nicosia.Bayrak Radio reported on each step forward,
putting over the message that Turkish Cypriots were now safe.

“We all cried with joy, played national music and marches all day,
said Mrs Hulusi. “OK, there were still some more political shockwaves until
everything was settled, but can you imagine, that for the first time in years
we felt safe!We Turkish Cypriots, felt
that once again we were free! And we must not forget all those people who had
died in those years of hate, how many had lost their families.I lost my son, but there were also those on
the Greek side in the fight – also Greek against Greek – all for an idea which
only a handful of people had in the beginning, a political idea that poisoned
respect for one another.”

Shortly after the landing of the Turkish army, a group of Turkish
resistance fighters went to take over the TV Station in Kantara.The roof had been damaged by a bomb but after
some repair work, it was soon back in action. That was the beginning of Bayrak
TV, which first aired on 26 August, 1974, Erdoğan
Naim had told me.

When I did this interview in 2006, so many
things had changed. Bayrak Radio is now located
on the road towards Ercan, a high antenna securing good transmission of its
five radio and two TV channels. I have often been guest of Can Gazi for interviews and the cooperation that resulted from
those talks was always great. Can is an old hand with BRT and one of his first
programmes was Places and Faces, today it is a Cup of Conversation. I have also
been invited by Denise Philips who
does radio interviews, she is in the business for many years and we often met
her in the streets for cultural events always full of energy. Zeki Ali with his well known jazz programmes
and Music on the Edge. There are so many
others, for example Hakan Cakmak of
BRT I doing the Art and Culture Programme; we see him present at most events himself.
Not to forget all those I have not personally met who contribute to the success
of BRT, and that on the international channel in several languages.

The director I spoke to in 2006 was Hüseyin Gürşan, a young and energetic
man appointed General Manager by President Mehmet Ali Talat.He was followed by Ahmet Okan and today there is Mete
Tümerkan sitting on the General Manager’s chair.

My best wishes go to the team of BRT for
the next decade and I am happy that I had the opportunity to gain a valuable
insight into its history.